When people come to lunch or dinner in my flat, politics are rarely the subject of conversation. Donald Trump may get mentioned, but only briefly! However there is one politician whom I often talk about. His first name means “God with us” and it is said he has caused a political earthquake. Yes, Emmanuel Macron, the President of France.

Why am I going to follow his leadership with great interest? To start with he married Brigitte whom he calls Bibi who taught him French and drama at a school in Amiens. I have a friend who married her teacher!

Emmanuel finished his education at a school in Paris. The press at the time said that this was to split them up. Emmanuel comes from a bourgeois (upper class) family. His father is a neurologist and his mother an advisor to the Social Security. His parents deny this was the reason saying that it was always intended that their two boys should study at the prestigious Parisian George IV. My friends say that, as President, Emmanuel has yet to prove himself. They really admire Brigitte’s sartorial elegance and she is becoming a fashion icon. When Nicolas Sarkosy became president, my friends in Alsace held street parties to celebrate. I haven’t heard of any happening this time!

Another reason I am so interested in Emmanuel and Brigitte is because of something they have said “On ne sait pas être l’un sans l’autre” (“We don’t know how to be one without the other”). You don’t hear that said very often! It is exactly what my husband and I thought about our marriage.

The only Presidential couple we socialised with was Jacques Chirac and his wife. This happened because a ten minute drive from where we lived in the Port de Bormes is the Fort de Bregançon. This is the holiday home of French Presidents if they choose to stay there. Jacques did because he is a man of the south, so it was like coming home. François Mitterand however was Breton so chose to holiday on Belle Ile in Brittany.

I wonder where Monsieur and Madame Macron will holiday? I hope that they will enjoy themselves. That is my wish for all of you too, whether home or away.